Friday, November 09, 2012

Last week the New York Post reported that Hunt Auctions is offering Joe DiMaggio’s 1951 World Series ring in its annual auction at the Hillerich & Bradsby Company in Louisville, Kentucky. According to the Post, the ring being offered by Hunt has stirred up a long-standing controversy over the alleged theft of most all of DiMaggio’s World Series rings from a New York hotel room in the 1960s. DiMaggio was wearing his 1936 World Series ring at the time of the incident, however, the “Yankee Clipper” claimed that all of the other rings had vanished from the Lexington Hotel.

Hunt Auctions does not mention in its current lot description the existence of the controversial Halper-DiMaggio 1951 ring and note that has been the subject of several articles published in the New York Daily News and described in detail in the biography written by Richard Ben Cramer Joe DiMaggio: The Hero’s Life.

In the biography Cramer described the DiMaggio ring thefts and the ring sold by Mastro and Barry Halper:

“In the house, Barry showed Joe everything he had–like Joe’s ‘51 World Series ring. Joe had traded that away to an L.A. hotelier, in exchange for lodging. Barry had bought it from that guy’s son. Now, Barry offered to give the ring back to Joe. But Joe didn’t want it. He signed a paper for Barry, affirming that was his ring.”

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“In the house, Barry showed Joe everything he had–like Joe’s ‘51 World Series ring. Joe had traded that away to an L.A. hotelier, in exchange for lodging. Barry had bought it from that guy’s son. Now, Barry offered to give the ring back to Joe. But Joe didn’t want it. He signed a paper for Barry, affirming that was his ring.”